I've been to Cuba, and I've seen their amazing ability to train doctors from all over the world. Regardless of what you think of Castro, this is absolutely unconscionable:
Cuban President Fidel Castro told more than 1,500 doctors Sunday night that American officials had made "absolutely no response" to his offer to send them to the U.S. Gulf Coast to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.
cont'd after the fold...
Castro, a longtime adversary of the United States, initially offered to send 1,100 doctors and at least 26 tons of supplies and equipment, but the Communist leader announced Sunday during a televised speech that he had increased the number of physicians to 1,586. Each doctor would carry about 27 pounds of medicine.
"You could all be there right now lending your services, but 48 hours have passed since we made this offer, and we have received absolutely no response," Castro said at Havana's Palace of the Revolution.
"We continue to wait patiently for a response. In the meantime, all of you will be taking intensive courses in immunology and also something that I should be doing -- an intensive brush-up course in English."
This is not political posturing on Castro's part- like I said, these are real capabilities that our president is IGNORING.
Update: People seem to be treating this as a subset of "that darn Castro and those silly Republicans", but it is very serious when some kind of political bullshit results in ignoring an offer of bigtime medical help in a time of need. Priorities!